


A Big Gorram Mess

by anorienparker



Category: Firefly
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-24
Updated: 2011-08-24
Packaged: 2017-10-23 00:33:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/244293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anorienparker/pseuds/anorienparker





	A Big Gorram Mess

Simon watched as River walked away, hoping she’d look back at least once. She didn’t. She wasn’t a little girl any more. She was still his little sister, would always be that, but she was officially, he guessed, by now considered a young woman.

As she strolled away with her new husband, a man ten years her senior, a doctor just like Simon who seemed to live and breathe just for her and had proven himself to both her and Simon time and time again, Simon wished them all the best.

It was good for her, settling down in a real house, no longer having to run from the Alliance. As far as they were considered, River Tam was dead and the woman before him with her plain brown skirt, sturdy boots and the too-large white sweater hanging off her thin frame, was just another villager in some random town on some random planet.

That’s just the way it should be, Simon thought to himself. She’d been on the run for too long, nearly a decade, and as much as he wished he could stay and watch over her, he knew he had to let her grow up eventually.

Besides, his life was here, on Serenity.

Strong, oil-streaked arms wrapped around him from behind, leaving slick black streaks on his new red vest.

“We'll visit her a lot,” Jayne promised, pressing a kiss against his lover’s neck. “Ever chance we get.”

“I know.” Simon, now quite used to dirt, oil, sweat and otherwise unidentifiable stains on his formerly impeccable clothes turned in the circle of Jayne’s arms and rested his head against the broad chest that seemed to be made for just for him to snuggle against.

“Meanwhile, I don’t have to worry ‘bout her killin’ me, so somethin’ good came out of her marryin’ the good doctor.” In truth, Jayne had grown to love River like a sister and knew she meant him no harm. Well, at least not when she was sane anyway, which thankfully seemed to be most of the time now that she’d found someone who seemed to understand her almost as much as Simon did.

Simon laughed softly and tilted his head up to kiss Jayne. “Well, now that you’ve got me all to yourself, what do you plan on doing with me?” he asked, locking his fingers behind Jayne’s neck and smiling up at him.

“I can think of a few things,” Jayne shrugged with his signature smirk. “Could show you a few of them right now if you wanted...unless you got some ideas of yer own you’d like to try out?”

Simon took a deep breath and bit his bottom lip.

“You could marry me,” he said quietly.

Jayne froze in place and leaned forward, like he couldn’t possibly have heard what he thought he’d heard. “ _Shah muh_ *?”

“Marry me.” Simon swallowed the lump in his throat and met Jayne’s gaze. “I won’t insult you by getting down on one knee, I know you’d think that was silly, but...” He pulled out a small black box from one of his vest pockets. “We could get Mal to do the honors. River’s right out there..she can come back, she’s the only family I can ask, and we can have a real ceremony for your family when we get back to...”

“Now _dung ee-miao*_ Simon,” Jayne said gruffly, before he saw the hurt in his lover’s eyes. Simon pulled away and started back to their cabin, not seeing that River and her new husband were just outside the door, and the entire Serenity crew was up on the catwalk above them, hiding in the shadows.

“I’m sorry,” Simon said, feeling as if someone had reached in and grabbed his heart, then squeezed it until it simply stopped beating. The rings were back in his pocket and he wondered what the hell had ever made him think Jayne would want to get married. “I thought....”

“No!”

Jayne grabbed Simon’s arm and nearly tripped over his own feet trying to stop him. “Tzao gao*, I knew I’d make a big gorram mess outta this,” he said. “I mean....I....” He pulled out a small red box just the same size and shape of Simon’s and held it between them. “I thought the same thing, ya stubborn git, you just got it in ahead of me.”

Simon’s mouth worked for a minute, but nothing came out. Finally, he took the box and opened it. Inside were two rings nearly identical to the ones he’d bought. Before he could say anything, Jayne was on one knee in front of him, taking the box back, then offering one of the rings to him, apparently having no qualms about the on-bended-knee thing after all. “Simon Tam, I know you could do better ‘n me, but seein’ as how you seem to like me okay anyhow, will you be my husband?”

Simon smiled and without hesitation dropped to one knee himself, matching Jayne’s pose. “Only if you’ll be mine, Jayne Cobb,” he said softly.

As Jayne slipped the ring on his finger, then held out his hand for Simon to do the same, everyone, including River and Samuel stepped forward and began with the cat calls and whistles.

Both men jumped, then looked at one another. “Did they....” Then it dawned on them. “Yeah. They did.”

“We was just bettin’ on who’d ask first,” Mal said as he collected a few bills from Wash and Book. “Personally, I bet there’d be a big misunderstandin’ before anyone said yes, since you’re both so _tzao gao_ stubborn. Looks like I won.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the two men who were now locked in a kiss that looked like it might ignite the entire cargo hold.

“Well, come on, let’s do it,” he said. “You both asked me to do the honors and we need to get it done with and get out of here. I got the vows memorized and everything...”

As an equally stunned Jayne and Simon got to their feet, River skipped over to them, took each of their hands and led them forward. “I can still kill you, Jayne,” she warned happily. “I don’t even have to be on the same planet. Remember that.”

Jayne’s smile only faded a little as he let his new sister lead him and his soon-to-be-husband to the makeshift wedding chapel that was already set up in Inara’s cabin.

Simon was worth chancing anything River could throw out at him, he decided. Simon was worth chancing anything at all.

 

*dung ee-miao - hold on a second

**Tzao gao - damn

***Shah muh - What?


End file.
